. >> reporter: both senator kelly ayotte and senator lindsey graham threatened to block rice's nomination. rice did persuade one senator. >> she said what she believed was true, and she was under no political influence from the white house. >> reporter: but joe lieberman is quitting the senate and won't have a vote rice and president obama are closer than he and the iconic hillary clinton. the president has made it clear he will fight for rice and tuesday the white house was not backing down. >> the focus on, some might say obsession on comments made on sunday shows, seems to me and to many to be misplaced. >> reporter: one veteran former diplomat says rice should not be made a scapegoat for doing her job. >> she was simply representing the viewpoint of an entire administration, and many of us have been in positions of defending administrations, republican and democrat in the past. >> reporter: and there's still another problem now. the acting cia director who accompanied rice late tuesday acknowledged that he had misspoken during his morning meeting with the three senators only add toget